The release of a new programming language at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this week highlighted one of the most marketable skills in the digital world: the ability to code. How necessary is it, really? And is that even the right question?

Co.Create contributor and novelist Jennifer Miller talks to self-starting writers about their bootstrapped marketing campaigns—and chronicles her own adventures as an author-entrepreneur (while also marketing her book—see what she did there?).

It is 75 minutes before showtime at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, and the Justin Bieber Watch is in full effect. (OMG!) On the fourth-floor pool deck of the hotel that overlooks the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, a motley collection of MTV marketing partners, entertainment executives, and other shiny Angelenos are enjoying cocktails and squinting at the open-air red carpet.